In the #RRBC Spotlight today Rhani D'Chae
Author of Shadow of the Drill
Rhani has a slightly different story to tell.
My mother doesn't really know me
I
was raised in a middle class home, the youngest child of devout Christian
parents who met as kids, and married in their late teens. We didn't have much
money, but I never wanted for the necessities of life. I was surrounded by
love, and a strong sense of family. It was a good childhood, and I had no
reason to wish for anything more, but…I did.
Like
many young girls, I had dreams of finding fame and fortune in my life. I
dreamed of being an actress, and just knew that all I had to do was get down to
California, and my future would be assured. I left home the first time when I
was fourteen, but things didn't go the way that I'd planned. I did find fame,
of sorts, in adult films, but they sure weren't the kind of films I could brag
to my family about. I also began dancing in topless/nude clubs, and I enjoyed
that line of work enough to use it as a fill-in job when I wasn't doing
something else, or if I just needed some quick and easy cash. I remember that
my mother once found a visor that had the name of a local topless club
emblazoned over the stage name that I was currently using. She was horrified,
so I told her that it belonged to a friend, and she was more than willing to
accept that as the truth. From that point on, whenever she asked about if or
where I was working, I gave her an answer that she would be okay with.
Something "respectable," that she could tell her friends and sisters
when they asked for family updates. Basically, I lied.
Since
then, I've done a lot of things for fun and enjoyment that my mother would most
definitely not approve of. I've always had a thing for the bad boys, and dated
several men that would have made her skin crawl. So I decided that there was no
reason to add that kind of stress to her life, until such a time as I was
getting ready to walk down the aisle. End result – she never heard about any of
them. For years, I've been involved with a fundraising group that held its
events in bars, or other places where alcohol is served. Again, not something
that I told mom about. I went through my drug phase, my alcohol years, and a
revolving door of lovers; none of which I ever mentioned to her. She and dad
didn't even know that I was pregnant until my son was almost four months old. I
knew how she felt about pregnancy out of wedlock, and I didn't want to cause
her that kind of disappointed sadness until I absolutely had to. I wish that
things between mom and I had been different, that I could have shared more of
my life with her. But her vision of the world was so tightly wrapped up in what
her Bible, and what her personal sense of morality said was right and wrong,
that such conversations would have only caused her to be more disappointed in
me than she already was. She would have felt like a failure for not raising a
daughter who shared her desire for a morally upstanding and religiously
grounded life, even though her definition of those things had not changed since
the early 1930's. To this day, I'm amazed by how different the actual world is
from the one that she lives in. But, she has no desire to open her eyes, or
change an opinion at her age, so that's another conversation that we don't
have.
Cancer
took dad ten years ago, so I've spent a lot more time talking with mom. During
my visits and phone calls, we've covered an assortment of topics such as our
respective health issues, how my son is doing, what's going on with my sister's
family, and should mom sell her house or stay. We've talked about a few things
of interest on the voting ballots, such as Tacoma's ban on casinos, and the
legalization of marijuana. We've also discussed a few of the Presidential
elections, and the Trump/Clinton showdown
fueled several
interesting discussions. We've talked about Christ's return; she thinks it will
happen in her lifetime, but I don't agree. I showed her my newest book cover,
and she told me that she didn't like the blood, though it did add much-needed
color. But she didn't ask about the book's plot, or how my writing is going.
She doesn't ask if I’m seeing anyone, or what I do with my free time. I think
she's afraid I'll tell her, and she'd rather not know. She never wanted to
know. And because causing her pain is something that I have always tried to
avoid, I did – and do – allow her to live in ignorance where I'm concerned.
So now, after decades
as her daughter, my mom doesn't really know
me, and probably never will. But she does know that I love her, and at the end
of the day, that's what counts.
***
BOOK BLURB:
A brutal experience transforms an unproven young
tough into a ruthless killing machine. For 15 years he waited, building his
body into an unstoppable weapon so that vengeance would be had through the
strength of his will and the power of his hands.
***
AUTHOR BIO:
Rhani D'Chae is a visually impaired writer,
reader, and lover of cats. She is currently working on the second book in the
Drill series, about an unrepentant enforcer and the violent life that he leads.
Twitter -
@rhanidchae
Website -
rhanidchae.com
The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
